Thursday, November 22, 2012

It's no secret that my favorite author is Roald Dahl. I adore his clever characters, his dry sarcasm, and his uncanny ability to write stories that appeal to both children and adults on multiple levels. When I spotted Who Was Roald Dahl?at our Scholastic Book Fair, I knew I had to have it for my classroom library. Although I proclaim myself as somewhat of a Dahl expert, I was amazed to find discover some facts that I was previously unaware of!

Here's my favorite Dahl Dirt:

Roald was sent to boarding school when he was nine. He wanted to go home so badly that he faked having appendicitis!

Roald went to school in the town where Cadbury chocolates were made. He and his friends got to taste test the chocolates! That is where his idea for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came about.

When he was 21, he had most of his teeth pulled out and replaced with false ones because he thought that real teeth were too much trouble.

He was a pilot in the British Royal Air Force. On a mission to North Africa, he crashed his plane and had to spend five months in a hospital in Egypt!

He could speak fluent Swahili and Norwegian.

He played poker with Harry Truman, boxed with Ernest Hemingway, and hung out with Ian Fleming (the author of the James Bond books).

One of Roald's most famous stories for adults was called Lambs to Slaughter. In it, a woman kills her husband by hitting him with a frozen leg of lamb. Then she serves the lamb to the policemen who are looking for the murder weapon. Talk about creepy!

Dahl loved dogs! He had a black lab named Jelly that he claimed wrote his stories for him. He also had a Jack Russell Terrier named Chopper that he fed oysters, caviar, and candy.

Roald did not want Gene Wilder to play Willy Wonka in the first movie adaptation.

On his writing desk, he kept a piece of his own hip that had been removed during surgery. Eww!

Quentin Blake (Roald's illustrator) drew the giant in the BFG to look just like Roald.

Recipe to Read By: Chocolate Truffles
Since Roald was a lover of all things chocolate (his family even buried him with chocolates!) it is only appropriate to include a recipe for something even Willy Wonka would approve of.